• Age: 15
• Grade: 10

In the summer of 1930, fifteen-year-old Matthew Clayton's mother dies, leaving him alone in Vancouver. Using the Union Steamship ticket she gave him, he sets out in search of his father, who is logging somewhere on the rugged West Coast. Matt boards the SS Cardena and begins an incredible voyage up the Inside Passage and through the isolated coastal communities the ship services.

On board he befriends fellow passengers Monica James and the high rigger Will Cameron, both intent on finding a new life, and Emily Carr, a soon-to-be-famous painter searching for a new direction in her art. What each of them finds comes as a surprise as they journey aboard the legendary steamship Cardena.

Mel Dagg is the author of three short story collections, Same Truck, Different Driver, Women on the Bridge, and Four Wheel Drift: Stories New and Selected. He has lived and worked in many parts of Canada as a teacher and technical writer, and has a PhD in Canadian literature from the University of New Brunswick.

Mel was born in Vancouver, BC, and raised on Vancouver Island. As a young man he worked as a deckhand on the famous ocean-going towboat Lloyd B. Gore. He and his wife currently divide their time between Mexico and Vancouver Island. Passage on the Cardena is Mel's first novel.

Mel Dagg's profile page

Passage on the Cardena is a gorgeous, cinematic, and engaging foray into a past we can't afford to forget. I love the deft choreography with which Mel Dagg sets in motion a fascinating cast of characters. The novel is also replete with passages of another sort—brilliantly written glimpses of a now-vanished working coast. If you love fine writing and care about this magical intersection of earth, sea, and sky, don't wait: book passage now. —Gary Geddes, author of Kingdom of Ten Thousand Things and Drink the Bitter Root

Passage on the Cardena

Just before she died, 15-year-old Matt’s mother gave him a steamship ticket so that he could find his father who was logging somewhere up near Prince Rupert. Some of the ship’s passengers and crew including a high rigger, a “kept woman” and Emily Carr, feel responsible for Matt, as his father’s reputation is known. Dagg’s technical knowledge of ships and sailing, plus his familiarity with the BC coastline, especially the dangerous Inside Passage lends authenticity to this well researched historical novel. Tied in with Matt’s fate are adventurous and colourful characters such as loggers, miners, gamblers, and mariners who relied on the coastal steamboats to bring goods and services to rugged and remote communities.

Includes a reproduction of the map of the Union Steamship Route of 1938.

Caution: Some mention of adult sex makes this book a mature read.